Lipomodeling is a procedure which is typically performed under general anesthesia. Adipose tissue or fat is usually harvested from one part of the body such as the abdomen, buttocks, thighs, etc., and purified to obtain the adipocytes. The purified adipocytes or fat is then injected directly into a targeted region of the subject's body, for example, to treat the face or breasts for augmentation or treatment of abnormalities. In treating the breasts, the fat is typically injected, e.g., a volume of 100-250 mL per breast, via 10-mL syringes directly into the breast and deposited along multiple microtunnels to build up or remodel the breast.
Examples of such procedures are described in Fat Injection to the Breast: Technique, Results, and Indications Based on 880 Procedures Over 10 Years, Delay, Emmanuel et al., Aesthetic Surgery Journal, vol. 29, no. 5, 360-376, September/October 2009; Cell-Assisted Lipotransfer for Cosmetic Breast Augmentation: Supportive Use of Adipose-Derived Stem/Stromal Cells, Yoshimura, Kotaro et al., Aesth. Plast. Surg., vol. 32, 48-55, September 2007; and Fat Grafting to the Breast Revisited: Safety and Efficacy, Coleman, Sydney et al., Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, vol. 119, no. 3: 775-785, March 2007, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
During injection of the adipocyte material, the physician will typically inject small, discrete quantities into the patient body using a Byron-Coleman type reusable injection cannula. However, this technique is subject to variability in physician technique potentially resulting in inconsistent results and is also subject to improper placement of the adipose tissue into undesirable regions within the breast.
The regions within the breast which are ideally avoided by the physician, such as the muscles or ducts of the breast, may be difficult to discern while the desirable locations for injecting the fat (located between the pectoral muscles and breast ducts) are also difficult to detect. Prior attempts to accurately position the cannula for injection into the ideal locations within the breasts have been made but they have faced difficulties in use and adoption. Examples are described in, e.g., A New Technique to Assist Epidural Needle Placement, Ting, Chien-Kun et al., Anesthesiology, vol. 112, no. 5: 1128-35, May 2010, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
There remains a need for the application of greater volumes implanted into the breast as well as improved instruments and methods to better enable fat harvesting, purification, and/or implantation of the fat. Additionally, there remains a need for instruments having improved guidance for the precision placement of viable adipocyte grafts in the breast relative to the surrounding breast tissue.